Noble Mineral Resources delivers significant gold reserve at Bibiani Project in Ghana

Emerging West African gold producer Noble Mineral Resources (ASX: NMG) has reported a 605,000 ounce Ore Reserve for its Bibiani Gold Mine in Western Ghana as the company’s Pre-Feasibility Study into the re-commencement of gold mining operations at Bibiani gathers momentum.

Independent Consultants, SEMS Exploration Services Limited (SEMS), have estimated a Proved and Probable JORC Code compliant Ore Reserve of 8.4 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.24g/t Au for 605,000 contained ounces. This was based on an open pit cutback and a cut-off grade of 0.7g/t Au.

“This is another key milestone in our Pre-Feasibility Level Study and is a significant gold Reserve for us to build our initial mine plan around,” said Noble’s Managing Director, Wayne Norris.

“Based on work already completed by SEMS there is also very clear potential for the Bibiani Mining Lease area to host additional gold mineralisation, particularly at depth and along strike from the existing mine, so we are very confident of adding further Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves as our exploration work continues."

“We now look ahead to progressing work relating to our operational and business plan for the Bibiani gold mine, which will be the next milestone on our path to establishing a profitable, long-term gold mining operation in Western Ghana,” he added.

The definition of the Reserve forms part of a Pre-Feasibility Level Technical Study of the Bibiani Project carried out by SEMS to confirm the potential for refurbishment of the Company’s 2.7Mtpa Bibiani treatment facility and the subsequent re-commencement of gold mining operations.

As part of this study, SEMS have concluded that the optimal exploitation of the Mineral Resources would be through a combination of surface and underground mining operations running in tandem and utilising the existing infrastructure.

This infrastructure includes a substantial underground mining trackless fleet and the modern Bibiani CIL gold mineral processing facility.

SEMS has now completed open pit evaluation work to the detailed design stage and work on underground design and optimisation has progressed to a Pre-Feasibility Level.
The Ore Reserve position at Bibiani has had the evaluation of the surface mining potential done using open pit cutback ore and a gold price of US$1,100 per ounce. This has resulted in the estimation of Proved and Probable Ore Reserves.
Not included in the open pit cutback Ore Reserve is a total of approximately 0.8 million tonnes of marginal-grade material averaging 0.6g/t, and any of the Inferred Mineral Resource that is contained within the pit shell.

After depletion of the mineral resource model to account for the open pit cutback, the delineated underground resource amounted to 6.53 million tonnes at a grade of 3.62g/t Au containing 760,000 ounces (at a cut-off grade of 2.0g/t).

As the technical design and evaluation work is progressed, JORC compliant Ore Reserves will be declared for the underground mine on a progressive basis. Further additions to the Mineral Resource will be made available from the planned underground exploration programme.

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